North Shore synagogues to 'stream' High Holiday services

Courtesy B'nai Jehoshua Beth, Chime Costello

B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield is one of a number of congregations who are live streaming their High Holiday services. "We value community and this redefines what community can mean," says executive director Arlene Mayzel.

B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield is one of a number of congregations who are live streaming their High Holiday services. "We value community and this redefines what community can mean," says executive director Arlene Mayzel. (Courtesy B'nai Jehoshua Beth, Chime Costello)

Donald Liebenson, Special to the Tribune

Can't make High Holiday services? Watch on-line.

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, begins Thursday, to be followed Oct. 4 by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe and B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield are among an ever-increasing number of houses of worship who are streaming their High Holiday services live.

Virtual services are a thing, said Arlene Mayzel, the executive director of BJBE. "There is more interest," she said. "I get calls all the time from synagogues (across the country) who know that we are doing it."

Virtual congregants can access the streaming services on BJBE's website. The synagogue has been providing this service for five years. "The original intention was to reach out to our members who are either ill, infirm, or in some other way unable to attend," Mayzel said. "But we discovered it opened us up to this wider audience. We started getting emails or notes in the mail with a contribution that said, 'I enjoy watching your services. It makes me feel like I am part of the congregation.'"

Streaming services -- BJBE also streams its Friday night Shabbat observances -- are very much in keeping with the synagogue's core value, Mayzel said. "We value community and this redefines what community can mean. We want people to be transformed by a Jewish experience, and this opens us up beyond the boundaries of our walls. I received emails from someone in Scotland who found us and watched our holiday services. Someone in New York said they watched (on-line) while on the subway."

While streaming services is a way to be inclusive to those unable to physically attend, it is also a way to engage a younger, more tech-savvy demographic. "We have a lot of young people who might have grown up with us but who are now living in the city," Mayzel said. "Getting here may be difficult for them, so this allows them to continue their relationship with us."

But this begs the question: If people can watch for free from anywhere on their mobile device, might they not be compelled to actually become members? That would be the exception to the rule, said Drew Barkley, the executive director at North Shore Congregation Israel. "Originally, when people began discussing streaming that was a red flag," he said. "But we have found that it creates more of a connection and the desire to be a part of this community. "

In addition to High Holiday services, NSCI has also, with the family's consent, streamed bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings and memorial services, an option appreciated especially by family and friends who, again, are elderly or cannot travel long distances to attend.

"Part of our mission," Barkley said, "is to educate, follow Torah, and to do justice. One of the values behind that is to be relational and available - to give people an opportunity to feel like they are part of what is going on even if they are physically unable to attend. That is a really powerful thing."

It is a cliché of Jewish humor that more congregants turn out for High Holiday services than they do for other observances throughout the year. Data suggests that this holds true for streamed services as well. "For a typical Friday night, we get 15 to 20 people watching (online). On the High Holidays, it's more like 40 to 60."

Barkley, too, sees streaming services as an opportunity to provide a bigger tent for worshipers wherever they may be. "Sometimes we go over the list of cities and we scratch our heads," he laughed. "We know who lives in Los Angeles because we have a family here whose daughter attends the University of Southern California, but who do we know in Omaha or Waco, Texas? It's pretty interesting to see from where people pop up."